Conversations...

How you know that you travel a lot...

After opening a gift card for Target from one of his buddies for his birthday, Alex later said to me
"So, it's like a credit card at Target, right?"
Me: "Right."
Alex: "And I can spend it on anything I want, right?"
Me: "That's right. Anything up to $20"
Alex: "Cool!...Hey mom, what if I got a gift card to Lake Tahoe? Wouldn't that be so cool! I could ride the gondola!"
A gift card to Lake Tahoe. Only my kid.

Another day this week I had a car full of girls driving to dance class. Hannah was telling the girls how she was listening in on the phone and heard her friend's mom ask if Hannah could have sleepover and she was giggling on the phone because she was so excited. Another girl added that she likes to listen on the phone when her parents are talking to each other. The girls all asked what they talk about and Hannah said, "Do you hear them plan trips?"
I cracked up.
The other girls were all asking about whether she heard them talk about her birthday or Christmas presents or if she got in trouble, but Hannah assumed all parents talk about vacations.

That's the Blatters for ya.

Somebody's 6 Today!

From here...

To here...


You are just pure fun and adventure and joie de vivre.
I love you so much! I hope you have a wonderful birthday and always make good choices and continue to be the bright happy light that you are to everyone! Make the world a better place Aggie! In your own sing-songy words..."My name is Aggie...See me shi-ine!"

Keep shining!
(In honor of you, I'm going to do a bunch of backlogged posts about you!!)
For a tribute (from last year) with baby pics over the years, see here

Labor Day Weekend

More of the same...
We went camping with a couple of families back up at Bullard's Bar...



Some highlights included the campfire time...(ooh, and s'mores made with peanut butter cups. YOU MUST TRY! Thanks Ryan! I'm never going back!)


with Chancellor and his guitar (although he knew none of the classics. Kids these days! Thankfully Ryan helped out in that department)...

Tivoli...

The hammock that John rigged...

Filling the boat to the brim with people...somehow we fit 8 adults, 2 teenagers, 13 kids and 1 baby on ONE boat. (It's capacity is 12) Crazy! I guess we were dragging 2 tubes full of kids so technically they weren't on the boat, right? We would have liked to have had more families come but we were pushing it already with only one boat!




We found a some great beaches to explore and one to set up camp...


There were these crazy tree stumps with the roots exposed everywhere! They were kind of creepy like gigantic mud spiders. Spooky!


The kids got a little dirty (understatement) playing in the mud and building a dam...

The damn (their pride and joy)...


BEST COMMENT OF THE WEEKEND...
by Hannah
"Man, All this damn work is making me tired!"
Hannah truly didn't know why everyone was cracking up! Oh, may she stay young and innocent!

The boys climbed as usual...


And the men found a great jump...
John with a sweet back flip...



Ryan with a swan dive...



Chancellor with his perfect swim team form...

John doing something crazy...


Here I go...

Another cool jump we found...Go Trenton...

Cute Katie all smiles...

Until forced to try the ski trainer...

Patient Ryan helped all the kids start from shore...
whether they liked it or not.
She did it!!

My personal fave...Cousin Syd...



Every kid had a go...




Love Jackson giving us all a "rock on" back at the shore!



Check out the dragonfly captured in this shot by Claudia's face...

Even Owen got in on the fun...




Cute Baby Ali watched from the sidelines...

and then took a nap with mommy...

The older boys and Claudia went out for a wakeboard run...(Mason's a big boy now!)



And then Chancellor and Dallin wanted to be dragged behind the boat...

It was hilarious!
Back at the dock where we fed the fish and got treats at the little store...





Another day we found our favorite cove which the kids had aptly named "Twin Fall Cove"...

The water was MUCH lower than Memorial Weekend and so we had to do a bit of climbing to get up to the falls. Hannah and I found yet another jump...I think we have the same form...

Gorgeous water, gorgeous girl...


And we tested out the floating bathrooms...

It was rockin' while Alex was doing his thing!

And of course, we did some serious tubing...



Rebekah and I got on the tube with Claudia in the middle and John went crazy on us! We were FLYING! Rebekah has a hidden talent for holding on. She was a bullrider in a former life. I, on the other hand got thrown off twice like a rag doll! Claudia kept crying out, "I thought you said John was a cautious driver! YOU LIED!" I've never heard myself squeal and make the noises I was making on that tube. It was crazy. Of course, no pictures, but serious air!
I'm older than I think. I need a chiropractor now!
This is what Georgia thought of it all...

And this about sums up the weekend...

Now we're home and the ridiculous amounts of laundry, camper cleaning and boat cleaning have almost turned me off of vacations forever!

almost.